Racine concedes

Recount of 14 Vermont counties shows no switch in Democratic choice for governor

Sep. 10, 2010

Doug Racine concedes that Peter Shumlin won the Vermont Democratic gubernatorial primary in front of the Chittenden County Courthouse in Burlington on Friday, September 10, 2010. / GLENN RUSSELL, Free Press

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Doug Racine conceded the Democratic gubernatorial race to Peter Shumlin this afternoon, shortly after the statewide recount showed he still trailed Shumlin.

The still-to-be certified results of recounts conducted in all 14 counties showed the gap between Racine and Shumlin widened by six votes to 203.

"I called Peter. He has won this campaign," Racine said at a news conference outside Chittenden Superior Court where one of the recounts took place. Although Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Washington Superior Court will have to certify the final tally, Racine said, "from my perspective it is over."

Racine pledged he would assist Shumlin in his run for governor. "I’m going to be part of the team," he said. The pair plan to meet shortly to discuss how Racine might best help, Racine said.

He reasserted his conviction that the recount — which has left Democrats without a clear gubernatorial nominee for the past two week — was worth the delay. "It was worth it just to be sure," Racine said, "so there weren’t any questions in people’s minds."

Eric Davis, political commentator and retired professor of political science at Middlebury College, suggested the recount, coupled with the joint campaigning by all five Democrats who ran in the primary, had helped unify Democrats.

Davis also said he didn’t expect the delay hurt Shumlin’s fundraising ability among small donors but might have slowed down contributions from bigger donors.

The actual recounting of votes began Wednesday and a dozen of the state’s 14 counties wrapped up and reported their results by the end of the second day. The sped-up process was possible because Racine and Shumlin had agreed that optical scanning tabulators would be used to recount votes for ballots that were originally counted in that manner.

The last two counties reported Friday morning.

Winooski was the final town counted in Chittenden County. At 10:40 a.m. a volunteer approached county staff with a summary sheet.

"This could be it for the whole state," said Robert Bristow-Johnson of Burlington, one of the volunteers who had worked all three days of the recount in Chittenden County.

The final results for Chittenden County, which county Clerk Anne Williams released 30 minutes later, showed Racine had picked up 13 votes over his original tally, while Shumlin had added four.

Overall, however, Racine’s net increase was 19 to Shumlin’s pickup of 25.